Fox's The Mob Doctorpremiered to just a 1.5 adults 18-49 rating on Monday night. It's now a dead show airing, and will be off Fox's schedule sooner rather than later.

On Tuesday, we suggested that Touch currently slotted to premiere on Friday (October 26), would be moved to Monday, 9pm after The Mob Doctor is yanked, but it seems that we may have been limiting our options unnecessarily.

With the announcement that the season premier of Kitchen Nightmares has been indefinitely postponed, with no announcement of when and where it will go, some have speculated that Kitchen Nightmares featuring Fox's go to guy, Gordon Ramsay, will move to Monday's, either at 9pm, or at 8pm with Bones moving to 9pm. Some have also suggested that Fringe might move to Monday (but perhaps tongue in cheek).

@Jayme
Not gonna happen! Not unless CTV would take over like 90% of production costs and to be honest, only the pilot episode has aired so no sure way to know how the rest of the episodes rate. And if FOX pulls the series on Tuesday CTV will probably only have the produced episodes to air which can’t be more than 5 meaning it’ll pull the plug too! The only ratings that count are FOX’s.

Dan

@Nick – We can all agree that there is a lot of leftover Kitchen Nightmares left combined with a new season is a lot of episodes for this season. FOX wouldnt just hold all of them until January there would air some of them now on Fridays or as a replacement when they can especially when they have a lot of series already for midseason. Second year drama Human Target was originally scheduled to air on Fridays but the Domino effect of Fall 2010 shifted that to Wednesday. It was still cancelled but never aired on Fridays. FOX might still have faith in Touch even though it was scheduled for Fridays so maybe it will move to Mondays.

http://tvbythenumbers.com Bill Gorman

@Jayme, Fox doesn’t care how the show does in Canada. Sony is the producer. Maybe non-US money could keep Sony producing the show, but I doubt it.

SJ

According to Wikipedia, KN has already aired 17 episodes last season. I can’t imagine there being more than three episodes left from that season and seeing how KN was only supposed to be on Fridays for 3 weeks, that’s the number I’m going with. Reality TV episode orders are notoriously hard to come by.

So instead of airing on Fridays for three weeks, those episodes could air on Mondays on October 1, 8, and 15. The new season can return in January and air on Fridays after Fringe is done. As for Fox Mondays in November, I still suggest simply doubling up on Bones episodes. There are four season 7 episodes left, so the show has 26 episodes to air during this season. The Following premieres in January. Problem solved.

Jcc

I’ve never seen so many idiots on one site ever in my life. !! – again 75% of you didn’t even watch the mob dr – I could tell just by your writing ! – the show is good and will air all 13 episodes – then ill write back to tell you all how stupid you are again !

Dan

@SJ – Baseball comes into play October 15 so it might make more sense for KN to make the return in November after Baseball. I don’t think FOX would double up on Bones since they might need those episodes to fill holes (since Bones will be airing every Monday at 8 Until May). It makes more sense to air another show Monday at 9 like Touch or KN. I think that Mob Doctor will be yanked after next week but if it somehow survives until October 1 or 8 a new season of either Touch or KN likely wont premiere until November so episodes can air without break. If Mob Doctor gets yanked next week than I expect repeats (Maybe of Bones or Glee) for Monday October 1 and 8.

http://tvbythenumbers.com Bill Gorman

“75% of you didn’t even watch the mob dr – I could tell just by your writing ! – the show is good and will air all 13 episodes – then ill write back to tell you all how stupid you are again !”

Dream on.

Dan

The Mob Doctor will be pulled after next week. It had only The Voice has real competition last week so imagine how much worse Mob Doctor will do against The Voice, Dancing With the Stars and 2 Broke Girls/Mike & Molly.

Ultima

@NickFox was planning to air a bunch of Kitchen Nightmares episodes last spring that were bumped for The Finder.

No, they weren’t. FOX was going to air Hotel Hell in that timeslot.

Kitchen Nightmares aired all of its fourth season episodes. Those that were scheduled and just pulled had fifth season production codes.

Holly

@Jcc,

again 75% of you didn’t even watch the mob dr

And therein lies the problem: No one watched it.

Dan

There are 16 episodes for season 5 of Kitchen Nightmares so i8t would make sense rather than air 3 episodes on Fridays to hold the whole season until November so more episodes can air through March or April.

chezmoi

Does cable ever significantly affect the ratings of the big 3 CBS, ABC, NBC other than sport?

Wiye

Since Fringe is another dead show walking, FOX has nothing to lose by moving it to Monday where it would likely do a bit better than still dragging on through the coming months in the Friday 9 pm black hole. But this only goes to show how FOX has limited its options by delivering too few new series, only 3 and all of which no one will watch, thus sabotaging itself from realizing any possible gains or hits for this season right from the start. What viewers are then left with are warmed-over leftovers like Kitchen Nightmares to plug in the gaping holes, shows that essentially do nothing to advance any success for the network other than just maintaining the bottom dollar line.

Dan

@Wiye – FOX isn’t going to put a dying show in its final season after Bones on Monday. Fringe will air all 13 episodes on Fridays. Touch is the more likely solution since its younger and has some potential.

tv#1

It would be great if Fringe moved to Mondays, but that is highly unlikely. I think the most likely scenario is that Kitchen Nightmares moves to the 9pm eastern slot on Mondays. If Fox moves Touch to Mondays they are just going to have to move it back to Fridays when The Following premieres in January.

Dan

@TV#1 – Not Necessarily. If FOX moves Touch to Monday and it underperforms than it won’t get the back 9. Its likely that all 13 episodes of Touch will air Mondays at 9 until The Following premieres in February. If they move Kitchen Nightmares to mondays than they will just have to move that back to Fridays when Fringe ends.

Patrick G.

I don’t think it’s so “tongue-in-cheek” or crazy to move “FRINGE” to Mondays at 9pm. The show started out on Tuesdays and did very well there. It started sinking when it went to Thursdays and then Fridays. Wouldn’t it be a surprise if FOX moved it to Mondays and the ratings bumped high enough for them to consider extending “FRINGE” to a full fifth season, or – ee gads – a sixth?! LOL. I know it’s highky unlikely, but stranger things have happened with this show!!

For the last 30 years cable has been taking a bigger bite out of the primetime audience than it did the season before.

While it’s only one night with lots of repeats, on Friday 9/21, 85% of the adults 18-49 audience was watching cable in prime time. That’s higher than it will be during the season, but somewhere 60-70% for cable in primetime during the season is a reasonable guesstimate.

Edit: I was motivated to look at an in season day. On Tues, Nov 15, 2011 (all new broadcast shows), ~70% of the adults 18-49 audience was watching cable in primetime.

Tested

A 1.5 may give fox some reason to hold off on making an immediate wild move. My guess is it runs a few more weeks to see what’s up and give fox time to develop a plan b. Still think Alcatraz should have had a season 2. This seems to prove me right.

http://tvbythenumbers.com Bill Gorman

“A 1.5 may give fox some reason to hold off on making an immediate wild move. My guess is it runs a few more weeks to see what’s up and give fox time to develop a plan b. Still think Alcatraz should have had a season 2. This seems to prove me right.”

Mob Doctor is 100% doomed. The amount of time it remains on the schedule is now entirely due to Fox scheduling constraints and replacement availability.

Failed shows like Alcatraz have to be replaced. Fox only has 15 hours a week to make money in primetime. Keeping a loser show around prevents them from trying something else that might make them more money. The fact that the replacement failed (as most new shows do) is irrelevant to the (correct) decision to cancel Alcatraz.